 Armeria 'Nifty Thrifty' $7.95
- common name: sea thrift
- flowering season: spring and early summer with rebloom in fall
- height: 6 to 8 inches
- Light requirements: full sun
- Soil requirements: average to infertile
- Water requirments: average, drought tolerant
- Growth habit: small hummock of leaves
- How to propagate: dividing in early summer -- the newly separated pieces of plant need better care than the parent plant may have been receiving, such as regular watering until the roots re-establish themselves
- Leaf type: narrow fairly short leaves edged in cream
- Ways to use it such as in a pot or otherwise: does very well in a sunny rock garden; a group of several may show up better from a distance than a single plant
- Special characteristics: at the start a new plant will need regular watering, but once settled in this plant thrives without much fussing; it grows well in the sandy soil along a beach as implied by its name of “sea thrift”
Known as sea thrift, this low cushion of a plant would be happy in an exposed, windy, sunny seaside, although it is equally happy in your garden when given the same exposure of full sun and no crowding by larger neighbors. It adapts well to dry infertile soils. Rich soils can cause it problems, leading a plant to rot in the center. During mild winters it can be evergreen. It has leaves edged in creamy white. The rose pink flowers are clustered in small, round balls atop short, thin stems of six to eight inches. Flowering is heaviest in spring. In milder climates, flowers can appear over many months. As a good edging plant for the front of the border, it also can be planted in the rock garden or within the crevices of a stone wall. Cold hardy to USDA Zone 5, with protection from winter winds, such as by a covering of evergreen boughs. |
 |
